Kerry positive for COVID-19 with UN climate talks stalled
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry has tested positive for COVID-19 at the U.N. climate talks in Egypt, a spokeswoman said late Friday night, the latest setback for what appeared to be stalled negotiations that were already going into overtime.
“He is fully vaccinated and boosted and experiencing mild symptoms. He is working with his negotiations team and foreign counterparts by phone to ensure a successful outcome of COP27,” spokeswoman Whitney Smith wrote in a statement.
Kerry’s illness was sure to add to worries about the speed of negotiations, which were scheduled to end Friday but are continuing with no clear end in sight.
Negotiations, at least those in public, hit a lull Friday afternoon into the evening, as news conferences and meetings were postponed or canceled. Diplomats said they hoped for late-night progress.
Delegates said some headway was being made, especially on the issue of “loss and damage,” which is the idea of some kind of compensation — a dedicated fund or something less formal — from rich nations to help out poor nations already hit hard by extreme climate events worsened by decades of burning of fossil fuels by developed nations.
“I think we’re in for a bit of a long haul,” World Resources Institute’s International Climate Director David Waskow said. “Loss and damage sits at the center in terms of what needs to be done to get this over the finish line.”
After being somewhat isolated in not favoring a dedicated loss and damage fund, there is talk of the United States working on another proposal with the European Union, which produced a surprise offer Thursday, Waskow said. He also noted that one issue is the surprising unity of poorer nations, often called G-77 and China, on the issue, insisting on a fund being established at this summit.
“We are very busy and they’re making some progress and they’ve gotten some clarity on all positions,” Molwyn Joseph, who spoke on behalf of small island states, told The Associated Press.
“There is the possibility that we could get an outcome, but also it could fall over at the last minute,” said New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister James Shaw. “And I think if that happened, it would be a real shame because this is as close (on loss and damage) as we’ve ever been before.”
Pakistan’s climate minister, Sherry Rehman, told her fellow negotiators that two of the proposed options that don’t immediately provide a loss and damage fund “are not tenable” for the 77 poorest nations and China.
A new draft cover decision from the Egyptian presidency came out Friday morning, half the size of Thursday’s 20-page document that was criticized for being vague and bloated. But the new one still has little new compared to previous years and plenty of places with yet-to-bedecided options. And some of the most talked-about proposals, from the European Union, Barbados and India aren’t in it.
The EU made a surprise proposal late Thursday that called for creation of a fund for “loss and damage” payments to the most vulnerable nations, an idea long resisted by some rich countries in Europe and the United States. But it would also require emerging economies such as China, the second biggest polluter after the U.S., to contribute and ties any deal to tougher emissions cuts.
“We’re making clear that Europe is on the side of the most vulnerable states,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said. “Others can now show which side they are on.”
The proposal would also require stepped-up efforts on “mitigation,” the term used for work to slow global warming. It also adopts a call to phase down all fossil fuels — a measure first proposed by India and a dramatic step up from previous commitments to just phase down coal.